


it's a beautiful night so please don't fall asleep

by buskids_lovebot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:34:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25204048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buskids_lovebot/pseuds/buskids_lovebot
Summary: The night Jemma and Fitz parted ways to save the world, inspired by Eleanor and Chidi's scene in The Good Place where they say goodbye to one another.
Relationships: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Kudos: 37





	it's a beautiful night so please don't fall asleep

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!! This is my first fic in a really long while so I'm dusting off the cobwebs here. I had this idea since the The Good Place's finale, but never really had the motivation to finish it until aos introduced Diana and I couldn't stop thinking about the fic I've had in storage for months. It's short and quick, not too fancy and grand but I hope it at least incites some emotion. For laura and damla. Thanks for reading :)

“Funny,” Fitz started off. “How in 24 hours this world will cease to exist. No one will know this future.”

“But us.” Jemma corrected gently.

“But us.” Fitz repeated in affirmation. “hard to fathom that all these years will be ours and ours only. Fascinating, ain’t it? Time travel?”

“Yea.” Jemma found it harder than normal to grasp this. In a day her and Fitz will be changing the course of the past - hopefully realign it to a totally different trajectory- and thus making their future obsolete. To live in two different futures. Out of billions of people, only her and Fitz will have known of an alternative future. Both of them sat in silence for a moment, processing the intricacies of it all. the looming hours hanging over their head like an odd hope-inducing dark cloud.

“You know, I can’t wait to see our friends again.” Jemma said with a small smile, trying to change to a more light- hearted topic. Neither of them said it out loud, but a second half accompanied it - but who knows how long till we’ll see each other again?

“Me too. Mack, Daisy, May, Yoyo, I miss them. Deke, I wouldn’t mind not seeing him ever again.”

Jemma jokingly punched his arm lightly in response. “You still don’t like him? I thought you guys were doing better. Better than the first round anyways.”

“Ehhhhhh. He’s pretty annoying. But he has a good heart… I think,”

“Give him time. I’m sure he’ll be better next time,” Jemma assured him as she put her head on Fitz’s shoulder. Fitz started twirling Jemma’s hair gently. They sat like that in silence for a moment, processing it all. The world slowed down all around them- faded away, and for a moment they were the only ones there. The weight of the world momentarily melting away, for a bit they felt like a normal couple bathing in the quiet comfort of a Thursday night.

“After all this is done, we’re moving to Perthshire. That is if no one accidentally destroys that part of the country in the new timeline.” Fitz whispered into Jemma’s ear, gently breaking the silence between them.

All this time travelling shebang gave Jemma an excuse to look through potential cottages in Perthshire. Jemma thought of it as some kind of stress reliever, in the same way people looked through online catalogues of clothing and put them in their carts for the fun of it. Fitz thought it was a waste of time (“Can we do one thing at a time, please,”), but nonetheless paid some attention to Jemma’s ramblings over the cottages she found on property websites. Some days Jemma ditched the websites altogether and skipped to finding empty plots of land and suggested they should build one from scratch. If not for her cottage searching venture, Jemma reckoned she would have been off the hinges by now.

“Of course.” Jemma replied with a smile. “I’ll make sure no one destroys it and we’ll move there when everything is done.”

Another bout of silence ensued. Jemma laid her head on her pillow and entertained the idea of Perthshire for another few moments, thinking about the windows filtering in the soft morning light, the gentle breeze and chirping of the occasional bird, the family they will build there… It was enough to keep her going.

“Promise me,” Fitz settled onto his pillow and met her gaze. “You won’t forget me.”

After much dancing around, they finally address the elephant- no, one of the many elephants- in the room. Jemma instinctively reached for her neck, her fingers slowly tracing the area where Diana was embedded. Inserting a device into your neck to block your own memories must be the act of a madman. Jemma felt like she was staring into the abyss at this point.

“I would say I won't,” Jemma replied. “But I can’t guarantee that.”

Fitz’s heart dropped slightly. All he wanted was to hear Jemma tell him she would remember him- every part, every memory- but he knew in the back of his mind that it wasn’t possible. And he desperately wanted to remember Jemma, but who’s to say all his memories would come back when- no, if- the chip is taken out? They both signed up to lose yet another part of themselves they would never get back.

“If our love could survive space and time, it can survive this little amnesia chip right?” Fitz joked, trying to ease the gloomy atmosphere.

Jemma said nothing as she inched closer to Fitz, so close she could feel his breath on her face.

“Let’s forget everything and try to sleep, shall we?” Jemma whispered as she looked up at Fitz. All she wanted now was to fall asleep in the arms of the man she loved. Who knew when would be the next time she could do that? Fitz’s eyes softened as he looked at Jemma, taking every part of her face in for the last time. Jemma turned and faced away from Fitz as he snuggled his cheek at the crook of her neck. The fingers on his left hand interlaced with her right. Their breathing slowly falling into sync. Jemma remembered reading somewhere that a couple’s heartbeats can match up when they are together. Although she never tested out that theory, it seemed pretty cool. A couple so in love and in touch with one another they just become one being altogether. Jemma became acutely aware of how closely Fitz was cuddling her, and she melted into his warmth. Slowly, Jemma let her ricocheting random thoughts sway her to sleep.

-

That all too familiar feeling of loneliness enveloped him before he even opened his eyes. fitz cracked his eyes wide open and he didn’t feel that morning sleepiness at all, as if he never slept in the first place. the bedsheets beside him were rumpled, empty. Maybe he could convince himself that Jemma just got up earlier to make some breakfast. But he knew better. He turned his head to Jemma’s spot on the bed.

On Jemma's pillow laid a photo, worn out at its edges. Fitz picked it up gingerly as a small smile danced across his lips.

It was the photo Jemma had taken of them on their very first day on the bus. They smiled at the camera with a youthful exuberance they’ve long lost to the years they dedicated to this organisation. Fitz still remembered how jemma kept harping on about wanting to commemorate this special occasion (“Fitz! we’re about to become agents. Like actual agents. We should at least take a photo to remember this day, shouldn’t we?”). Now this photo served as the very few possessions they owned. Fitz lingered on Jemma's face for a moment, before flipping the photo absent-mindedly.

Two lines scribbled in blue on the back of the photo caught his attention. It was written in a handwriting Fitz would recognise anywhere, anytime. His heart fluttered as he read those two sentences again and again, burning it into his memory.

“I’ll see you soon. I love you.”


End file.
